Wofford football coach Mike Ayers was there in person when the basketball team gathered for Selection Sunday, when pairings were announced for the NCAA tournament, and was there in spirit when the round-ball Terriers went to the Big Dance.

“It was great,” Ayers said. “We rooted for them as hard as we root for ourselves. … It was really cool. It’s neat to see your guys out here.

“When it’s all said and done, we’re all Wofford.”

Wofford was a No. 15 seed in the Midwest Regional after winning the Southern Conference tournament and played No. 2 seed Michigan, losing by a score of 57-40, in Milwaukee.

“The tough thing, just like in football, when you have trouble scoring, no matter how hard you play, it makes it tough,” Ayers said. “But did we deserve to be there? One-hundred percent. When you look at the enthusiasm of those guys and their effort on the floor, believe me, they weren’t going to leave anything on the court. They gave it all they had.”

Michigan fans knew all about losing to a Southern Conference school. They watched the Wolverines drop a 34-32 overtime game in 2007 against Appalachian State.

“I guarantee you Michigan was tight just thinking about that game,” Ayers said. “… You know, on any given day, if you’re doing what you’ve been coached to do and you’re doing it as well as you can do it, you’ve got a shot.”

About This Blog

Todd Shanesy is an award-winning sports writer who has been twice honored nationally by the Associated Press and more than three dozen times by the South Carolina Press Association. He is a native of Troy, Ohio, and studied journalism at Marshall University (1987 graduate). Shanesy is a former sports editor of the Florence (S.C.) Morning News and has been with the Spartanburg Herald-Journal since 1991.

Follow him two ways on Twitter: @ToddShanesySHJ and @TerrierTracker (for everything Wofford-related).